This season brings another realignment, as Durand moves up to the Northwest division and Polo goes down to the Upstate. The Northwest and Upstate respectively represent the bigger and smaller schools of the conference, based on enrollment.

But that wasn’t always the case, as the divisions were once split based on geography.

“Football goes by enrollment now,” Lena-Winslow athletic director Jim McCabe said. “It’s been that way for around four or five seasons.

“I know some don’t like the enrollment because all their neighbors are either in the small- or big-school divisions.”

Galena, which has played in the Northwest for the last two seasons, is a school that regularly travels many miles to play like-size opponents.

“They don’t get to play (nearby) East Dubuque, Stockton, Warren and River Ridge because they’re all in the small schools and Galena’s playing the big schools,” McCabe said. “Their closest home game this year is us or West Carroll. So they’re a solid 40 minutes away from their nearest opponent.”

That wasn’t the case when the Pirates played in the Upstate, but the tradeoff is playing traditionally strong teams like Eastland-Pearl City, Dakota and Le-Win.

“For us being in the corner of the state, we don’t really have teams that are close by,” Galena coach Ed Freed said. “We’re doing a lot of travelling, but we’ve been on this side for awhile and it’s been a very competitive conference.

“The majority of us are going to be in the 1A playoffs, so if you want to reach your ultimate goal, you have to win your games in the conference because you’ll see the top teams from there in the playoffs. So that’s what brings the best out of your team is playing great competition.”

From 3 divisions to 2

The look of the NUIC and its divisions has been about the same the last eight years. But just 13 years ago, the conference was very different.

There were three divisions — West, South and East — in what was then called the Upstate Illini, all based on geography and mostly teams that are currently in the conference.

The Upstate Illini South featured Forreston, Aquin, E-PC, Polo, Milledgeville, Mt. Carroll and Savanna. The West held East Dubuque, Galena, Le-Win, Dakota, Orangeville, Warren-River Ridge and Stockton.

The East was different. It had Durand, Pecatonica, South Beloit and A-FC, but also featured North Boone, Rockford Lutheran, Hiawatha and Rockford Christian Life. Christian Life played in the East in 1999 and 2000.

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In 2001, the Upstate Illini became the NUIC, or Northwest Upstate Illini Conference, which featured teams from the South (Aquin, Mt. Carroll co-op, Forreston, Polo, E-PC, Milledgeville) and West (Dakota, Le-Win, Warren/River Ridge, Galena, Stockton, Orangeville, East Dubuque).

Teams from the East, with the exception of Christian Life going independent, formed its own conference called Four Rivers.

The conference lasted five years.

“They realized things weren’t really working out because they had to play each other twice a year,” McCabe said. “So they came back to the conference. And here we sit with the conference as is.”

That’s when the Northwest and Upstate divisions were created, based on enrollment.

Changes

Some long-standing rivalries have stood the test of time.

Dakota and Lena-Winslow have a decades old rivalry and tradition of winning. Same goes for E-PC and Forreston.

But Stockton and Galena’s ended, to a degree, on the football field when realignment moved Galena to the Upstate in 2011. Both teams didn’t meet for almost two years before playing in the second round of the playoffs last fall.

Dakota and Orangeville, former Upstate Illini West and NUIC North rivals, tried to keep their rivalry alive with crossover games, but the two teams haven’t played each since the 2008 playoffs.

Le-Win and Stockton renewed their rivalry with crossover games the last two seasons, but haven’t been part of the same division since 2005.

Polo has played in both Upstate and the Northwest and returns to the small-school conference this fall. It will again lose its rivalry with nextdoor neighbor Forreston. Both schools co-op in other sports.

“Of course, we’d like to keep Polo, because they’re a local rival,” Forreston coach Denny Diduch said. “A lot of their community and our community have some long-standing rivalries and stories to tell.

“But we’ll start some new stories with Durand and probably in the next few years, we’ll see Polo back in our division.”

Diduch said that while Polo is gone, a growing rivalry with Galena has been great for both programs.

“I’d say there wasn’t a great Forreston-Galena rivalry,” Diduch said. “But the last two years we’ve had two great games in Week 1.

“I wouldn’t change that because it’s worked out well for both of us. But you have a system in place that’s as fair as you can make it.”

Fair because enrollment within the area can be cyclical.

“Le-Win was for years always the biggest school in the conference,” McCabe said. “When I started in Le-Win we had 370 students, this year we have 265.

“So in 13 years, we’ve dropped close to 110 students. That’s a difference. This year Polo went to the small-school division and they could be a top team this year.”

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Old is new

Dakota will play its crossover game with Stockton Week 9, a historic rivalry game that this season could have postseason implications.

Lena-Winslow will play Aquin in an old-school NWIC matchup. Both football programs are looking to reload after losing a veteran senior core.

As for Orangeville, its schedule doesn’t change much at all from last year.

“It’s not much different because we lose Durand, but we gain Polo and Durand’s our crossover,” Broncos coach Jay Doyle said.

Durand’s new coach, Dennis Schwab, had a three-year stint at South Beloit that ended following the 2011-12 season. His father, John Schwab, also coached the Bulldogs for 20 years and led the team to a state runner-up finish.

As far as the coaching staff, the Bulldogs will have familiarity within the conference.

“I think it affects the players more than anything,” Dennis Schwab said. “This group of seniors has always played Aquin and Stockton and it’s different for them this year.

“I’m not sure if they know what to expect, so it’s a curveball. So as a staff, we have to let them know playing Lena-Winslow or Eastland-Pearl City will be just like playing Stockton or Aquin or East Dubuque.”

Forreston will play a tough Warren team that made the playoffs for the first time in program history as a solo team.

Even though it’ll be the first time the Cardinals play the Warriors, Forreston and Warren-River Ridge played in the Northwest until 2010.

“They had a very good year last year, Diduch said. “They played real tough against Mooseheart last year and they should be very tough and they run a spread offense, so we will not have seen that until we play them.”

Realignment, along with interesting crossover matchups, have helped keep things fresh in the conference and has revived some past rivalries while also creating new ones.

“I like it,” Diduch said. “Every two years switching things up a little bit is nice.

“And I think it’s about as fair as you can have it with enrollment. It’s very stable and I hope it’s able to continue for as long as possible.”